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In celebration of International Tabletop Day and our Preliminary Pro Tour Qualifier this Saturday we’ll be offering 20% off all board game and table materials and substantial discounts on select MTG singles (ask about them, for real, our foil student of warfare is 25% of Card Kingdom’s price.) this Friday Saturday and Sunday.

and in case you haven’t heard, we’re having a PPTQ this Saturday! It’ll start at noon and is $15.00 to enter. $100 store credit and a chance to go to a regional PTQ await the winner!

We will be open at midnight on Thursday (technically Friday morning) to divvy out DTK Preorders and to run a release draft!

We will have Friday night magic starting at 6:30 (with Dragons finally legal). There will be no release event standard on Saturday or Saturday Night Draft, as the store will need to close at 4:00 this Saturday.

Sunday we’ll be open from noon to five and will be hosting our weekly yu-gi-oh! tournament, as per usual.

Sunday Night Modern will begin this Sunday (march 15th) at 6:00. Note that this is an hour after closing, so the front door may be locked until 15 minutes before the event begins. I’ll do my best to be here at five, and just let the store stay open, but I’ll definitely have it open by 5:45. Our first sessions will be $5 to enter with 50% of the prize pool going to first place, 25% to second place, and 12.5% to each third and fourth. I’ll definitely be looking for feedback on how our participants would like future events to be structured.

March MTG Patch notes:

– The threshold for adding a fifth round to our constructed ‘graduated prize structure’ has been reduced from 32 to 29. Twice in the last three weeks we have had a player go 3-1 without making the top 8, and that is not supposed to happen. This change will reduce the frequency of that occurrence.

– Wednesday Booster Drafts are no longer being held. This change happened a while ago, but attendance on Wednesdays was low enough that it’s likely no one noticed. Now it’s official.

– Saturday Booster Drafts are having their price elevated to $15. Prizes will only be paid out at the end of the tournament, instead of on a ‘per round’ basis, and the overall prize pool is being reduced by half a pack per player. Our margins were so slim that even a change as small as having an odd or even number of players significantly affected us.

Our first preliminary pro tour qualifier is in the books. 6 Rounds of Swiss were played before a top 8 draft that eventually led to the crowning of our champion. Here is how it happened.

Player Registration started at 8:30, the front door opened at 8:00, which left us scrambling to get everything set up, but get everything set up we did. Storefront ready? check. Judges and Scorekeeper ready? check. Printer hooked up? Hello? Printer?

And so it came to be that our 33 players were seated manually. While Head Judge Peter Richmond led the players in sealed pool verification and deck construction, we troubleshooted our printer troubles. By the time we were ready for round 1, everything was moving along swimmingly.

6 Rounds of Swiss means that 4-1-1 is safe. As it turns out, a couple of 4-2’s made it to our top 8. That means in this tournament it wasn’t just about how many times you won, it also mattered who you were able to win against. When it was said and done, our top 8 was announced. Aaron Fisher, Kevin Rovegno, Morgan Wesley, Joseph Peters, Jordan Johnson, Ben Hull, Luis Barniol, and Cory Jones would face off in a draft. Only one of them could be victorious. Only one could win the fridge.

And they battled. They fought over the scraps of playable cards in what was a very low powered draft. Jordan and Cory faced in the first round. After splitting two close games, game three started with Jordan on the double mulligan. Cory punished his opponent’s dwindling hand with a turn 3 Rakshasa’s secret, and Jordan’s night was over. Ben, Joe, and Luis were also sent home in the quarter finals, leaving Kevin, Aaron, Morgan and Cory still in the chase. Morgan and Cory were matched against each other in the semis. Game one saw Morgan putting Cory on his back foot, only to have Cory resolve a Silumgar. Morgan looked glumly at his Mardu Skullhunters and Aven Skirmishers. The Drifting Death swept them where even Molting Snakeskin couldn’t save them, and they shuffled up for game two.

Game two featured Morgan coming out of the gates with little guys triggering raid and Merciless Executioner keeping Cory off balance long enough to close and forcing a game three. Game three Cory kept a hand with some black and white dudes and a Treasure Cruise to refuel, but no blue mana. After several turns of Morgan’s creatures getting in the beats, and his removal keeping Cory’s relevant creatures off the field, Cory was defeated with a Treasure Cruise left in his hand. Aaron was able to fend off Kevin, and found himself shuffling up across the table for Morgan, preparing for an Abzan mirror match. Just like that, we were down to two.

Aside from some player’s drafting in the corner, two players and two judges were the only people remaining after a long day. Aaron’s deck of Armament Corps, Duneblast, Archfiend of Depravity, and double Tuskguard Captain seemed well matched against Morgan’s Ambush Krotiq, Sagu Archers, and Gurmag Swiftwing.

But Morgan would not give up. He was thirsty. In no small part because his local store’s GTS mini-fridge had broken down a week before. Strapping a Snakeskin to an Aven Skirmisher or delving away a Swiftwing for his Soulflayer secured two victories, and Morgan found himself alone on top. He shook his opponent’s hand, traded his first place Tropical Island for Aaron’s second place Bayou to fill out an Anafenza tiny leaders deck, and departed boldly into the night, but not before claiming what was rightfully his, and what everyone had battled for that day.

As we’ve mentioned repeatedly, you can (and should) pre register for our PPTQ this saturday either in the store or by following the Preliminary Pro Tour Qualifier link on the table on the left side of the page. What has not been mention is that the button on that page (the one for online pre registration {which you should really do}) will come down Friday night at 8:00 PM. If you have not registered by then (which you might as well do) make sure you get to the event early (between 8:30 and 9:30) so that we can get you registered before the player meeting begins.

Friends, Romans, Countrymen, lend me your ears;
I come to praise PPTQs, not to bury them.
The prizes of a tournament live after them;
The frustrations oft forgotten on the drive home;
So let it be with PPTQs!

*Ahem* Now that’s out of my system.

As a PTQ grinder, the whole concept of a PPTQ (where first place gets an invitation to a regional PTQ) is frustrating. It’s hard enough to spike one tournament, much less two. As a store, getting the opportunity to organize and run my own PPTQ, I get a chance to put away some of that angst and replace it with problem solving. In order for PPTQs to be worth the time of a grinder the tournament needs to be worth your time in its own right. Gone are the days where 2nd place goes home with 12 packs. We get a chance to host a real tournament with real prizes. That’s why I’m proud to announce that our event will be paying out more than $800 in prizes.

Please check out our ‘Preliminary Pro Tour Qualifier’ link (it’s under ‘Magic’ on the menu to the left). Our event is January 31st, and if we can get rousing support for this event, we’ll be able to bring you another awesome tournament next season.

We are very pleased to announce that we’re getting new carpeting at the store. That is why we were closed on New Years Day (Well, that and sleeping off an evening of Ne’er-do-well’ing). It turns out that much of Friday morning on the 2nd will be spent getting all the pieces back where they belong, so we will be closed until 4:00 PM on that day.

We are, however, still doing FNM, so you’re more than welcome to come to that, play some standard, and check out the new, expanded play space. Starts at 6:30.

We are rolling out some changes regarding our Friday Night Magic events, but I would like to stress two things before diving into the patch notes:

1.) These changes go into effect December 26th, so our tournament this Friday will be exactly as it has always been.

2.) If these changes go as intended, you will not notice a difference.

Now, having cleared that up, lets move on to the changes.

1.) FNM is now scheduled to start at 6:30 instead of 6:00. This is designed to help out out 9-5’ers of the world, particularly those who commute from Lynden.

2.) If you pay your FNM entry fee in store credit, it will cost an additional $2.50. I repeat: the price will remain at $6.50 if you pay in cash/debit/credit, but will rise to $9.00 if you pay in store credit.

3.) The Guaranteed prize structure that we’ve all come to know and love is turning into a graduated prize structure based on attendance. The details of which can be found at friday-night-magic page (there is a link on the bar to the left, see it?)
NOTICE: the prize structure remains identical for events with 25 – 36 participants.

We’re pleased to announce that we are teaming up with Lydia Place to put on a toy drive to help bring Christmas to the people and families that use their services. Starting immediately and lasting through December 22nd, for each toy or game donated in good condition, we will also donate one item of the same type.

Stop by and make a donation. If you don’t have anything to donate, then buy something, and donate it. We will not be accepting cash donations.